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 Summarizing Which Files Differ
 ==============================
 
    When you only want to find out whether files are different, and you
 don't care what the differences are, you can use the summary output
 format.  In this format, instead of showing the differences between the
 files, `diff' simply reports whether files differ.  The `-q' and
 `--brief' options select this output format.
 
    This format is especially useful when comparing the contents of two
 directories.  It is also much faster than doing the normal line by line
 comparisons, because `diff' can stop analyzing the files as soon as it
 knows that there are any differences.
 
    You can also get a brief indication of whether two files differ by
 using `cmp'.  For files that are identical, `cmp' produces no output.
 When the files differ, by default, `cmp' outputs the byte and line
 number where the first difference occurs.  You can use the `-s' option
 to suppress that information, so that `cmp' produces no output and
 reports whether the files differ using only its exit status (
 Invoking cmp).
 
    Unlike `diff', `cmp' cannot compare directories; it can only compare
 two files.
 
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